PART OF THE WEEK: Pressure is mounting on IAG as annual results loom

Shares in British Airways owner IAG have followed Easyjet, Wizz and Ryanair since the start of the pandemic.

Four years later, there are few signs this is likely to change, with the airline’s shares down around 10 percent in the past 12 months.

The pressure is increasing on IAG – which also owns the Spanish airlines Iberia and Vueling – to get its affairs in order with the annual results on Thursday.

But that may be too much of a stretch for a company that has shown time and time again how unreliable it can be.

There has been turbulence in the aviation sector, with flights to and from Israel grounded due to the conflict in the Middle East, rising oil prices and higher labor costs. However, IAG plans to resume flights from London to Tel Aviv from April.

Analysts expect the company’s fourth-quarter turnover to rise 11 percent to £6 billion and profits to rise by almost a fifth to £434 million.

For the full financial year, sales are expected to rise 27 percent to a record £21 billion, while profits should reach a record high of £3 billion.

The city will also closely monitor how IAG’s capacity compares to pre-Covid pandemic levels.

And with debt levels falling, the company could move towards paying a dividend for the first time in four years in 2024, according to analysts at investment platform AJ Bell.

IAG – which is worth £7.5bn – will need to release a bumper update if it wants to overtake its rivals.